Scholarship Hunting (Dream Comes True)

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping different result.

this kinds of words were mentioned by Albert Einstein many years ago in responding to the people who do not want to make a change. I believe everybody does not want it to happen to oneself, let alone myself. Having been living in my home country for more than 28 years, I learned that many things should be changed and improve in terms of my personal value as well as the people around me. I always believe that change is needed for an improvement. While "change" does not guarantee success, there is no success without it. One of the things that I dream to make the change is starting from myself. Like a famous singer entitled King of Pop said in his song lyrics that if you would like to make a change, you should start with "the man in the mirror." then here I go. In this writing I would like to share briefly about my "journey" to get the opportunity to get my Master's under Fulbright scholarship, a dream come true. I graduated from my bachelor degree in English Education in 2012 from State Islamic University in Riau, one of the provinces in Indonesia. I did not continue my study to master's program at the time because of two reasons: 1. I do not want to have it in Indonesia, and 2. I can not afford it. I decline continuing it in Indonesia because I was not sure about it's quality (which is a shame thing to say)especially in my field of study, English Teaching. this is worsen by the overwhelming tuition which is relatively expensive. So, I decided to apply for abroad scholarship. Nothing to lose. It is in April 2013, I was called for an interview in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. I was so excited, but i the same time I was nervous. I was wondering why I was called because I thought that my application writing was not that good. However I tried to calm down and to be optimistic. in the day of interview, I was "interrogated" by a panel of three interviewers. One word to explain the interview: Complicated!. I went off the room while saying: "if it;s for me, I will get it, if it's not, I would try again", July 2013, I got an email which said that I was accepted to study for my master's. I was very happy at that time. It felt like my dream was almost coming true. But the following email which I received discouraged me since I had to complete a series of test called IBT TOEFL and GRE. I was trying to do my best, resigning my self from my job as an English teacher because I want to focus on preparing the tests. It took very long process until.. February 2014, I was officially accepted in Central Michigan University, one of the best campuses offering Master's in TESOL. I felt blessed to what happen to me. A common English teacher, not a special person, can go a broad to study. It is one of the biggest things I have obtained in my life besides a very lovely family and a caring wife. God has been so nice to me.